Municipal Development and Rehabilitation of the Old City of Lviv

Project description

Title: Municipal Development and Rehabilitation of the Old City of Lviv, Ukraine
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Ukraine
Lead executing agency: Ministry for Regional Development, Building and Housing of Ukraine; Lviv City Administration
Overall term: 2009 to 2016

Context

Ukraine. Experts being trained while historic front doors are restored. © GIZ

Lviv is western Ukraine’s business capital and a city of great cultural and historical significance, with more than ten per cent of the country’s cultural monuments located here. Many different peoples have left their mark on the city during its chequered history. The city’s buildings survived the 19th and 20th centuries intact, and its medieval core has been listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site since 1998.

The Old City and surrounding areas have not undergone any renovation work for decades. The city’s appearance as it stands today has been spoilt by inappropriate modernisation work, largely carried out in recent years. The poor state of repair of many buildings and roads, traffic jams, power cuts and an unreliable water supply adversely affect the living conditions of the city’s residents and hamper its economic development.

Residents and public authorities alike lack a transparent legal framework, funding and instruments to carry out renovation work properly and preserve the city’s overall appearance and its historic buildings.

Objective

Restoration of the historic old buildings in Lviv is managed sustainably and efficiently. The conditions in which the residents of the old city quarters live have improved, and the city’s development is promoted.

Approach

The project has four priority areas.

Developing urban renewal instruments. The municipal authorities receive support to improve the administrative, legal, institutional and financial framework and procedures. Instruments are being developed to carefully rehabilitate the city (integrated development strategy for the wider inner city area, development rules, competitive bidding), and dialogue and change processes are being moderated. GIZ is assisting the city administration with a programme to restore the front doors that give the city its characteristic appearance, a model to support private owners of historic residential buildings.

Training. To address the problem of the lack of experts, the project is planning training courses for construction experts; in the long term, these are to be run by local training providers too. Pilot restoration activities are carried out during practical training measures on selected properties and on particular topics, e.g. training seminars on restoring wrought iron elements.

Promoting appropriate, energy-efficient restoration measures. Local architects and planners are receiving training on topics including energy-saving measures, such as window insulation, and how to reduce the use of environmentally harmful materials. The project also offers residents consultancy from local architects who provide competent advice on technical, financial and institutional issues free of charge.

Awareness raising, public relations work and participation. Up to now, objects of cultural and historical significance have often been destroyed through ignorance during modernisation activities. A high profile in the local media is designed to raise residents’ awareness of the need to preserve the buildings and restore them properly.

Results achieved so far

The development strategy has been adopted by the city council and now forms the basis for further activities. A number of working group meetings and public events for residents were held while the strategy was being drawn up; this kind of participation in planning processes was new for Lviv. Public participation, urban design measures that improve the residential environment, and cultural events help encourage the population to begin identifying more strongly with the historic city.

In cooperation with GIZ and the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, the city administration organised three international competitions for historic Jewish remembrance sites in Lviv in 2010. An international jury awarded the first prize to drafts from Israel, the United States and Germany, respectively. Parts of the drafts are to be put into practice.

Training measures for craftspeople have been held in which five wooden doors, some as old as 240 years, a lime sandstone portal dating back to 1773, two Baroque balcony railings and several box-type windows have been restored for demonstration purposes. Around 150 carpenters, stonemasons, ironsmiths, painters and plasterers have been trained in craft and entrepreneurial skills.

A door and window restoration programme is being implemented in which 35 historic front doors and around 125 historic windows have been restored by trained craft businesses to date. Residents can submit applications to the city, receive expert advice, and commission and help finance the restoration measures.

Ukraine. View of the historic Old City of Lviv protected by UNESCO. © GIZ

      Further information


      Contact


      Iris Gleichmann
      Email: iris.gleichmann@giz.de